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How do I determine a title's availability?
How does estimated enrollment affect the number of books?
Are there any guidelines on textbook costs?
How do I order non-textbook materials?
What are the options if a book is unavailable or out-of-print?
How do I compile a packet of readings?
Where do I learn about copyrights?
Is there a way to get desk copies?
If you need title availability information, you can use
Books in Print on the
Web. Please note that commercial websites such as Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble
have notoriously inaccurate availability information, sometimes listing
books that are out-of-print or not obtainable
in a timely manner.
We base our ordering decisions on: 1) the estimated enrollment in the course, 2) past sales of the text, 3) the cost
of the book, 4) the likelihood of other copies on campus, and 5) the "optional" status of the book. If you wish us to
order varying quantities of particular titles, or can give us additional information about these factors, please do.
Also, if you will be needing to purchase a copy for your own use, for TA's, or to put on closed reserve in the
Library, please include these numbers as well.
Please Note: If your books will take a particularly long time to obtain, such as in the case of imported
foreign language books, you may want to over-estimate your enrollment so that all students will be able to get their
books in a timely fashion.
Carleton College does not have an official policy on how much the books for a course should cost.
Obviously, pedagogy is more important than price. However, the Carleton Bookstore -- when asked -- gives rough
guidelines of $100 per course at Carleton. In order to keep the cost to
students reasonable, we try to get as many used textbooks as possible from a variety of resources nationwide.
We also try to stay alert to new editions of books and the subsequent changes in resale value for the old editions.
If you need special nonbook supplies - goggles, notebooks, dissecting kits, or even the daily New York
Times (at a discounted rate), write these in on the request form as well. We do not stock these items
unless we are requested to do so. We'll make sure your students know these are part of your text list.
If a book you want to use for a course is out-of-print (or "out-of-stock indefinitely" or "temporarily out-of-stock
with no due date"), you have basically three options:
- Used copies. If the book hasn't been out of print long, our suppliers may have adequate quantities of
used copies of it. They may also have enough so that your students can share books (if that works in the
context of your course).
- Putting a copy or two on reserve in the Library. This is an easy solution (once again, if the course
context allows) and will also save students money. They can make copies from it for their own personal
use if they wish.
- Reprinting the book. Getting permission to do this can be a convoluted process, or it can be
relatively easy. We pay the copyright holder royalties that then are added to the cost of printing,
and we sell them at a small mark-up in the Bookstore. Unfortunately, the reprinted book often costs
about the same price as the "real" book -- not a particularly good value for a photocopied packet --
and it has no resale value. Permissions can be obtained through the
Copyright Clearance Center website.
If you want to collect parts of one or more books into a course packet, we recommend using
the Copyright Clearance Center website. Be aware that
course packets can often cost the same as or more than a textbook, have no resale value for students,
and have a considerably shorter "shelf-life".
A PDF file (Acrobat) is available with Frequently
Asked Questions about copyrights.
Because publishers often ask for course-specific information with the requests, desk and review
copy requests are best handled by the faculty and the departments. The Bookstore, however, has phone
numbers, addresses, and many e-mail addresses for publishers, and will be happy to provide any of these
you need to make your request.
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